OSCE strengthens Kazakhstan’s national capacities in preventing and countering terrorist use of the internet

On 17 – 19 May 2023, a national table-top exercise (TTX) on addressing the use of the internet for terrorist purposes was organised in Astana, Kazakhstan by the OSCE Secretariat’s Transnational Threats Department, together with the OSCE Programme Office in Astana. 

The three-day exercise bought about 20 representatives of Kazakhstan’s governmental agencies, law enforcement, civil society, the media, academia and the private sector. The event was facilitated by experts from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, SecDev Group, Europol’s European Counter Terrorism Centre and UN-led Tech against Terrorism initiative.

Experts presented good practices in addressing challenges stemming from the use of the internet by terrorists, while respecting the right to privacy, freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly, and religion or belief. Participants were also presented with a fictitious scenario, based on real-world events, which required operational- and strategic-level responses to emerging terrorism-related online threats in Central Asia.

"In this important area, co-operation between governmental agencies, law enforcement, civil society and other parties involved is imperative. Non-governmental organizations, the media, local communities and every individual citizen can play an important role in preventing and countering the use of the internet for terrorist purposes," said Yuri Fenopetov, Deputy Head of the OSCE Programme Office in Astana.

Marco Alberti, Ambassador of Italy to the Republic of Kazakhstan and Jean Joswig, Attaché of the Embassy of Germany in the Republic of Kazakhstan presented their opening remarks.

Participants discussed Kazakhstan’s commitment to join the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, which will make it the first Central Asian country to become a part of this treaty. This underlines Kazakhstan's resolution to strengthen its cybersecurity and reinforce the prevention of cybercrime, including terrorist use of the internet, through its legislation.

In line with these ongoing efforts, the OSCE-organized TTX will result in a Policy Response and Recommendation Paper aimed at improving the efficiency of respective national efforts in addressing threats posed by the use of the internet for terrorist purposes. These recommendations will be shared with the national authorities to help formulate human rights-compliant and gender-mainstreamed policies and frameworks, integrating these policy recommendations into broader national strategies and action plans.

The event was organized in the framework of the OSCE extra-budgetary project “Preventing and countering the use of the internet for terrorist purposes in Central Asia” with the financial support of Austria, Germany and Italy.